Special Service and Features
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre is organising One Week One Lab Campaign – Future Entrepreneurs Connect
One Week One Lab Campaign is a nationwide theme-based campaign to showcase the technological breakthroughs and innovations of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research  laboratories across the country. During this campaign, each of CSIR’s 37 constituent laboratories will showcase their legacy, exclusive innovations and technological breakthroughs every successive week. Each CSIR laboratory is dedicated to a different exclusive area of work and this campaign offers an opportunity for each one of them to showcase the work being done by them so that others can avail of it and stakeholders can learn about it. CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre , a constituent laboratory of CSIR is organizing this campaign during 5-9 June 2023, which will culminate with the Foundation Day celebrations of CSIR-SERC on 10 June 2023. Diverse programmes are being organized during this week at CSIR-SERC including Society Connect, Stakeholder Connect, Student Connect, Future Entrepreneurs Connect and Public Connect.
On the fourth day  of this campaign, Future Entrepreneurs Connect event was organized at CSIR-SERC. The event was organized to connect with the young people and college students to motivate them to take up entrepreneurship and also to provide a platform for them to know about the research activities at CSIR-SERC and the discuss their ideas with the scientific community at the campus.
About 35 final year B.E./B. Tech.  students from 6 colleges from across Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states participated in the event.
The event started with an inaugural function at 9:30 AM at Vigyan Auditorium, CSIR-SERC, Chennai. Shri Suresh Krishn, Managing Director, Isha Homes  Pvt. Ltd., Chennai and Shri J. Udayanand, Managing Director, Niketa Constructions, Coimbatore were the chief guests of the function.
The inaugural function started with Tamil Thai Vaazhthu and lightning of KuthuVilakku by the dignitaries. Dr. N. Anandavalli, Director, CSIR-SERC and Coordinating Director, CSIR Madras Complex gave the welcome address. In her address, she welcomed all students and budding entrepreneurs to the event and highlighted the important role played by civil engineering in daily life. She said that taking up entrepreneurship in civil engineering discipline is equally challenging and rewarding. She encouraged the budding entrepreneurs in civil engineering to have a clear vision and said that the future entrepreneurs must learn to take calculated risks, to efficiently manage time and financial resources, to build a professional network, to analyse the market competitiveness and to study whether their start-ups and solutions are adaptable to the market. She also motivated them to be passionate about whatever they do, to have work-life balance.
Dr. K Sathish Kumar, Chief Scientist, CSIR-SERC, briefed the audience about the Future Entrepreneurs Connect event, wherein he mentioned that the objective of this event is to motivate the young students to take up entrepreneurship/start-ups, to showcase the technologies of CSIR-SERC, to provide the participating students with the opportunity to interact with the scientists of CSIR-SERC to discuss their ideas, and to give motivational lectures for them by scientists of CSIR-SERC and eminent entrepreneurs.
A short video on CSIR-SERC, its accomplishments and important contributions to the society and nation in the past 58 years of its existence was shown to the participants. Dr. P Harikrishna, Chief Scientist, CSIR-SERC introduced the Chief Guests Shri Suresh Krishn and Shri J. Udayanand to the audience. Shri Suresh Krishn in his address said that being an entrepreneur is the best thing to happen in life and that it is the most rewarding, challenging and fulfilling way to achieve one’s dreams. He stressed that young entrepreneurs should have risk taking ability, willingness to fail and to get up and run again, to have unique ideas and clear plan, thinking big and learning every detail of the business, and to have the courage in taking and executing decisions. He said that growth is fundamental to any business and that sales & marketing plays a very vital role in keeping the business alive. He also stressed on the importance of emotional balance, learning from experienced people, having the right trained team for staying in the business and to achieve success.
Shri Udayanand, in his address talked about the importance of knowing one’s strengths, having clear plans, sensing and looking for opportunities in business, and keeping the customer base strong. He also spoke in detail on the fundamentals and ethical standards one must have as a start-up in today’s world. He also spoke in brief on the challenging projects take up by his firm. Dr. S. Vishnuvardhan, Principal Scientist, CSIR-SERC proposed vote of thanks.
The inaugural session of the Future Entreprenurs event was followed by the presentations by scientist of CSIR-SERC on the facilities and technologies of CSIR-SERC. It was followed by the presentations by the seven finalist teams of the Students Innovative / Start-up Competition being organized as a part of this event. The themes for the competition include, smart structures / infrastructure @ 2050, green energy / renewable energy structures / energy efficient buildings, waste to wealth, fast track construction, sustainable infrastructure, disaster mitigation / disaster resilient structures . For the competition, the student teams  were required to give their start-up idea on any one of the above themes. CSIR-SERC had reached out to around 75 colleges in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states for this event and competition. The competition entries were evaluated by an internal committee and seven Teams were shortlisted for presenting their start-up ideas on the day of the event. The winning team was announced during the valedictory session.
During the afternoon session, all the participants visited the Advanced Materials Laboratory, Advanced Seismic Testing and Research Laboratory, Wind Engineering Laboratory and Fatigue & Fracture Laboratory of CSIR-SERC and saw the research work being carried out there.
The Public Connect event, a part of CSIR-SERC’s one week one lab campaign includes a road show & exhibition with a team from CSIR-SERC travelling to 6 cities  across Tamil Nadu to share the contributions of CSIR-SERC with the public through interactions at public places and educational institutions. After flagging-off on 5 June 2023, the team is at Coimbatore today with more than 200 students, research scholars and faculty members attending the road show and exhibition at the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore and more than 100 students participating at the event held in PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.